Tag Archives: Social media

Why Marketing and Tech are Better Together: The Role of a Tech & Marketing Manager

In today’s digital age, technology has become an integral part of marketing efforts. As such, it’s becoming increasingly important for businesses to have a Tech & Marketing Manager on their team. This is because a Tech & Marketing Manager possesses a unique set of skills that can help businesses to leverage technology to enhance their marketing efforts and drive growth. In this blog, we’ll explore why a Tech & Marketing Manager is what a company needs and why.

What is a Tech & Marketing Manager?

A Tech & Marketing Manager is a marketing professional with a strong technical background. They possess both marketing and technical skills, which allows them to develop and execute marketing strategies that incorporate digital technologies. They specialize in leveraging technology to enhance marketing efforts and create more effective campaigns. This can include managing website content, developing email marketing campaigns, and utilizing social media platforms. A Tech & Marketing Manager is responsible for driving brand awareness, generating leads, and increasing sales revenue through digital channels.

Why does a company need a Tech & Marketing Manager?

Technical expertise

One of the primary reasons why a company needs a Tech & Marketing Manager is for their technical expertise. A Tech & Marketing Manager possesses a deep understanding of technology and how it can be used to enhance marketing efforts. They are knowledgeable about various digital tools, such as marketing automation platforms, email marketing software, and social media management tools. With this expertise, they can effectively use these tools to streamline marketing processes, optimize campaigns, and generate higher returns on investment.

Improved efficiency

Another reason why a company needs a Tech & Marketing Manager is for improved efficiency. With their technical skills, a Tech & Marketing Manager can automate various marketing processes, such as email marketing campaigns, social media posting, and lead nurturing. This automation allows for greater efficiency and saves time and resources, enabling the marketing team to focus on other critical tasks, such as content creation and campaign analysis.

Targeted audience reach

Ah, the Tech & Marketing Manager – the elusive unicorn of the marketing world. With their unique blend of marketing and tech skills, they are the magical beings that can bring a company’s marketing efforts to the next level. So, why do you need one? Well, let me break it down for you.

A Tech & Marketing Manager can also help a company to reach its target audience more effectively. They are skilled in using digital tools to identify and segment audiences based on demographics, behaviors, and interests. This enables the marketing team to create targeted campaigns that resonate with specific groups of people. By using digital tools to understand the behavior of the target audience, Tech & Marketing Managers can craft campaigns that are more likely to convert prospects into customers.

Greater ROI

In addition to improved efficiency and targeted audience reach, a Tech & Marketing Manager can also help a company to generate a greater return on investment (ROI). They are able to measure and analyze marketing metrics such as website traffic, engagement rates, and conversion rates, to determine the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. With this information, they can adjust marketing efforts accordingly to optimize results and increase ROI.

In today’s digital landscape, businesses need to embrace technology to enhance their marketing efforts and drive growth. A Tech & Marketing Manager possesses the technical expertise, efficiency, audience reach, ROI, and innovation that a company needs to stay ahead of the competition. By leveraging digital tools and insights, a Tech & Marketing Manager can help businesses to optimize their marketing efforts, engage with target audiences more effectively, and generate higher returns on investment. Therefore, it’s clear that a Tech & Marketing Manager is an essential asset for any company that wants to succeed in the modern business landscape.

Innovation

Finally, a Tech & Marketing Manager can bring innovation to a company’s marketing efforts. By staying up-to-date with the latest technology and marketing trends, they can introduce new and creative strategies that can set a company apart from its competitors. This can include new methods for engaging with customers, innovative campaign ideas, and creative uses of data and analytics to inform marketing decisions.

Why Hire a Tech and Marketing Manager?

First and foremost, a Tech & Marketing Manager can help your company navigate the ever-changing landscape of marketing technology. Let’s face it, the marketing tech world is a bit of a circus. There are so many tools, platforms, and apps out there that it can make your head spin. But fear not, a Tech & Marketing Manager can help you cut through the noise and find the tools that will make the biggest impact on your marketing efforts.

In addition to helping you find the right tools, a Tech & Marketing Manager can also help you use them effectively. I mean, what good is a shiny new marketing tool if you don’t know how to use it? A Tech & Marketing Manager can train your team on how to use the tools properly, so you can get the most out of them. Plus, they can help you integrate the tools into your existing workflows and processes, so you can work smarter, not harder.

But wait, there’s more! A Tech & Marketing Manager can also help you measure the impact of your marketing efforts. You know that old saying, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”? Well, it’s true. And a Tech & Marketing Manager can help you measure everything. From website traffic to social media engagement to email open rates, they can help you track it all. And not only that, but they can also help you interpret the data and make informed decisions about how to optimize your marketing efforts.

But perhaps the most valuable thing a Tech & Marketing Manager can bring to the table is their ability to speak both marketing and tech fluently. Let’s face it, marketing folks and tech folks don’t always speak the same language. Marketing folks are all about the creative, while tech folks are all about the data. But a Tech & Marketing Manager can bridge that gap and help everyone get on the same page. They can translate marketing-speak into tech-speak and vice versa, so everyone can understand what’s going on.

And let’s not forget about the innovation factor. A Tech & Marketing Manager is like a mad scientist, always tinkering with new ideas and ways to make your marketing efforts more effective. They’re always on the lookout for the next big thing, whether it’s a new platform or a new way of doing things. And they’re not afraid to experiment and take risks. After all, that’s where innovation comes from – taking risks and trying new things.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – “Wow, a Tech & Marketing Manager sounds too good to be true. Do they really exist?” Yes, they do! But like all unicorns, they’re a rare breed. They’re not just marketers who know a little bit about tech or tech folks who know a little bit about marketing. They’re a special breed that combines the best of both worlds.

So, why should you invest in a Tech & Marketing Manager? Well, they can help you cut through the marketing tech circus, use your tools effectively, measure your impact, bridge the marketing-tech language barrier, and drive innovation. They’re like a one-stop-shop for all things marketing and tech. Plus, they’re just really cool people to have on your team.

In conclusion, if you want to take your marketing efforts to the next level, you need a Tech & Marketing Manager. They’re like the missing puzzle piece that makes everything fit together perfectly. So go ahead, take the leap, and invest in a Tech & Marketing Manager. Your marketing efforts.

If this is something you are interested in learning more about, we would be happy to chat. We have limited spots available, but go ahead and book a free no strings attached strategy call with us today while spots are still available

14 Opportunities and Ideas to Help Add Additional Income During the Pandemic

Hello loves! I wanted to share some information that may be helpful for those that recently were laid off and/or you are looking to supplement your income during and beyond the Convid-19 Pandemic. Like many online business owners, I have a unique birdseye view because of the work that I do and the business I run. None of it is a secret or a ninja trick, and much of it you already have likely heard about, so most of it is just a re-iteration.

I have compiled a list of 14 opportunities and ideas to help add additional income during the pandemic for yourself and your family in these times of uncertainty.

As we start to do more and more delivery and curbside shopping, eating and etc… we will see that we simply do not have the force to support it. Here are places that you can look into if you are looking for work.

1) Grocery stores are hiring and their services are in high demand. Check into Clicklist and Instacart shoppers particularly

2) Doordash and Uber Eat Drivers – Even Pizza Delivery as well

3) Talk to your local marijuana dispensers and liquor stores – See about helping them with their curbside services…and in some cases delivery options

4) Amazon warehouses are hiring as well as drivers and customer service agents. Amazon alone is providing over 100k jobs

5) Become a secret shopper. I know that times are different right now, but there are many online secret shopping opportunities, for instance, customer service secret shopping with Expedia. The restaurant and retail store options won’t be available (unless they pivot) is my guess, but there are other opportunities. Let me preface that this is NOT a huge moneymaker, but it is great for supplemental income. https://www.bestmark.com/ I always had fun with secret shopping and I think you could too.

If you are looking at making some extra money in the online sphere here are some pretty great options.

6) For online work look into https://jobs.sykes.com/ , these are customer service jobs that you can do from home. You must have a dedicated phone line (not a cell phone) and highspeed internet.

7) Working Solutions is another home-based customer service opportunity as well – www.workingsolutions.com/

8) United Health Care for those that work in more of a medical field, they are hiring to help with the influx of calls that are coming in.

9) If you have a special craft, like content writing, graphic design, etc… you can look into www.upwork.com or www.guru.com and if you make and sell your own goods, look at facebook market place, www.etsy.com and www.ebay.com.

10) I realize that the stock market is a pretty scary place right now, but it also offers a lot of opportunities. Stocks are at a record low right now. The market will not be this unstable forever and it is guaranteed that there will be a boom (just don’t know when). The beauty of that is if you can get in at a cheap buy-in, like now, it could provide a huge return in 6-months. Only look into this if you feel empowered to do so. You can start up through Robinhood, which is a free platform for buying and selling stocks in the stock market. It is pretty intuitive and if you use this link you can earn free stock to start your journey with. Truly investing in stock (if you have the means) now might set you up for life. It could be like buying Amazon in 1997 if you get my drift! For Robinhood, though, it doesn’t require any investment right now, just sign up, get your free stock and start dabbling. Use this link to get your free stock >>> https://bit.ly/freerobinhoodstock-jg

11) For those that are toying with taking their business or ideas to Facebook, I have a free mini-training “8 Ways to Revive your Facebook Business Page Organic Reach” that you can take. It is a tiny bit outdated, but the content is still very relevant. www.va.alpinesbsolutions.com

12) If you are looking to take your vision into an online setting and getting serious about taking this time to pivot instead of panic, I would like to offer up some of my time to help you brainstorm. While I do have limited time, I still would like to offer up my own time as a resource. I am offering free 30 minute consults for a limited amount of folks (no strings attached, just value, value, value) the rest of the month. Private message me if you are interested.

13) I am also working on some additional free training and webinars to help people with making supplemental income online or to finally start your own online business journey. If you have a topic you would like me to touch on or have someone in the community talk about, please private message me or put your request below.

14) Lastly (for now), I would love to create a container for those interested to network together and join in on the opportunity to join think tanks, masterminds, engagement circles, and other self-promotion threads so we can all build each other up, stay connected, and love one another.

Do you have things to share or add to my list, please do? The more the merrier. The more information we can put out there the better. I will continue to harvest more ideas around this as the days and weeks unfold.

For those that are in a position to help, please help people, offer your time and what resources you can. This is a time to band together, practice impeccable hygiene, be compassionate and remember we are all in this together. Do not lead in fear…keep being amazing and I am rooting for those that are having a hard time. Please share with someone that you think might benefit from this information as well. I love you!

How Do I Give Someone Access to my Facebook Ads Manager Account

There may come a time when you will want help with your Facebook advertising. Instead of handing over the keys to your entire Facebook account you can give someone access to your Facebook Ads Manager account in less than 10 steps.

Log in to your Facebook account as your personal Profile.
Click the Ads Manager link on the left sidebar.
Click Account Settings at the top (next to billing)
It may prompt you to enter your password, if Facebook does, enter your password
Scroll down to Ad Account Roles
Click Add a Person
When you start typing the name of the user you want to add, a list of your Facebook Friends appears; select the name of person you want to add from the drop-down list. Note: If you are not friends with them on Facebook they will not appear, but you can enter their email and invite them to access your Facebook ads manager account that way too.
Select the access level. You can change this at anytime. I suggest Ad Account Advertiser.
Click Submit – The person you add will immediately have access to your ad account according to the role you chose for them

It really is as simple as that. You can get help, guidance and feedback on your facebook ads that you are running. In my opinion, having a few awesome and educated collaborators who know Facebook Ads and to give them access to your Facebook Ads Manager is something so very important to your social exposure and growth is PRICELESS!

And as always, if this stuff makes you dizzy and you just don’t want to take the time to learn all the ins and out Facebook ads, remember that Alpine Small Business Solutions, is your one stop shop for all your social media management and business building needs. We got your back, so give us a jingle or shoot over an email anytime we’re here to help.

Thank you for visiting our blog. We hope you enjoyed it. As a friendly reminder don’t forget to share this blog on your social networks and please comment, we love hearing from you!

This blog is brought to you by Alpine Small Business Solutions, Your Virtual Assistant and Online Business Manager Solution.

The Best Practices to Ace Your Pinterest Marketing

In the world of social media marketing, Pinterest is an odd duck. Sure, it’s a social platform. Sure, it’s a marketing tool. But Pinterest works differently than the platforms we’ve come to know and love (or, at the very least, begrudgingly use because we know it’s important).

The algorithm is different. The way audiences use the tool is different. The approach you need to take as a marketer needs to be different. Follow these best practices for a stellar Pinterest marketing strategy.

Do Optimize Your Pins.

Strategic keyword integration helps optimize your pins. Scatter keywords throughout the image file names, pin descriptions, board names, and board descriptions.

Do Conduct Regular Analysis.

Pinterest offers a great amount of data within its site for free. Every month or so look over to see your numbers. Pinpoint top performing pins, underperforming pins, and site traffic. Use this to tweak your strategy for the next month.

Do Integrate With Your Other Social Tools.

Let your social tools play off each other. Help your current followers find your account more easily by cross linking them. Every so often, tweet about one of your Pinterest boards to direct traffic to your page. Leverage the audience of one platform to build the audience on another.

Do Showcase Your Products.

Skip the highly promotional “buy this item” pins. These won’t perform well since using sales-y words like buy and sale anger the algorithm.

Take an indirect approach instead. Show ways customers can use your products in their lives. If you sell organic cage free eggs, make a board of all types of recipes using eggs. If you operate a microbrewery, make a board of DIY projects that recycle beer bottles.

Provide knowledge and value like you do with other pins, just integrate your product subtly into the mix.

Don’t Forget to Engage.

Remember the “social” part of “social media!” Make sure you pin posts from other accounts rather than only uploading your own links. It gives your boards the crucial variety and helps you get on the radar of other pages. Who knows, they may return the favor and follow you back.

Don’t Neglect It.

Pinterest requires you to “feed the beast.” The algorithm rewards consistency. It’s better to regularly pin rather than go on a one hour straight pinning spree. Aim for between 5-30 pins a day.

Don’t Use Hashtags.

These not only offer no search engine benefit, they can actually hurt your pin ranking.

Don’t Neglect the Images.

Pinterest is a highly visual platform. Paying attention to your images helps make the difference between a viral pin and an ignore pin.

For an optimized pin, focus on

Making a tall image with a 2:3 or 4:5 ratio
Using red/orange colors over blue ones
Using medium light
Using more than one dominant color

Don’t Pin Just to Pin.

It’s great to pin often and curate large boards bursting with pins. But it’s only great if these pins are worth pinning by your target audience. It’s easy to pin everything in sight in hopes of building up a Pinterest presence. But this sacrifices quality for quantity, which is not what your business is about.

Pinterest is a valuable asset to your marketing strategy. Using these best practices can help make your Pinterest presence stellar and improve your company’s marketing. If you lack the time to implement these strategies, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We are happy to offer social media management services for Pinterest (or any other platform). Give us a call or sign up for a free consultation today.

7 Success Benefits of Adding Facebook and LinkedIn Group to your Social Media Strategy

Social media groups are an untapped goldmine of potential for marketers, which is why I’m shocked when people reveal they seldom (or never) utilize them. Think about it — groups are a free avenue for people with similar interests to share relevant information to a hypertailored audience without newsfeed algorithms minimizing their reach. The last part of the sentence is huge. Make sure you hear it again. Share relevant information to a hypertailored audience without newsfeed algorithms minimizing their reach. It’s the content marketers dream!

The benefit of groups extend far beyond more efficient content marketing. Below are some benefits of consistent group involvement, followed by tips to finding the best groups and utilizing group engagement to your advantage.

Benefits of Social Media Groups

Establish yourself as an industry leader. By regularly posting insights and great content, you’ll be seen by your peers as an industry leader. And industry leaders see their business thrive.
Reach new audiences. Posting in groups can spread your company’s name and content to an audience otherwise unfamiliar with you.
Find new professionals to network with. With professional groups, you’ll be exposed to a wide range of professionals you otherwise might not come into contact with. When they interact with your post, you can send them a friendly message to connect and discuss the topic further. It’s a more personable way to acquire new connections across cyberspace.
Drive traffic to your website. You can post (relevant) pieces of content in groups. Members who click on the post will be directed to your website, giving you the opportunity to grow website visits.
Audience insight. Join groups tailored to your target audience and get a glimpse into their interests, needs, and common questions.
Learn from your experienced peers. Group members share insights, and you can learn a lot by reading through fellow members’ posts.
Access to job postings. In many LinkedIn groups, members post job openings relevant to the group’s demographics. These posting may not be highly visible elsewhere and the job poster may remember you from your insightful posts.

Finding Social Media Groups

When it comes to group engagement, quality is more important than quantity. It’s better to engage consistently with five or so groups than infrequently with several. You can find groups in several ways:

Use the discover function. For LinkedIn, click “interests” then “groups” then “discover” to bring up suggested groups. For Facebook, go to this link https://www.facebook.com/groups/ and click “discover”. You’ll see groups joined by your friends, local groups, and groups centered around a topic.
Search based on industry related keywords (like “social media marketing”).
Search based on groups you’re a part of in the offline world (university alumni organizations, professional organizations, etc.)
Search based on location (“small business groups in Seattle”).
Search based on your job position (“small business owners,” “graphic designers,” etc.).
Search for audience tailored groups. If you sell baby products, join parenting groups. If you sell backpacking tours, join backpacking enthusiast groups. Think about where your audience is, and make sure you are there too.
Search for post-event groups. After a large networking event, it’s common for a social media group to be created to connect participants together.
Ask your connections which groups they are a part of that they’d recommend.
Sort through the Linkedin group directory https://www.linkedin.com/directory/groups/

Group Best Practices

Before you post, get to know the group’s tone. Do people post in a formal or casual style? Are successful posts often questions or pieces of advice? Are post lengths typically short, medium, or long?
When posting in audience tailored groups, provide how-to articles, guides, and other pieces of information packed content. That’s the information they are looking for in these groups, and it will build your reputation in the groups as a leader.
Focus on providing value rather than self-promotion and sales. Strive to meet the needs of those in the group, which will translate into quality connections and awareness of your organization that can lead to sales.
If someone comments on your post, you can send them a message stating you appreciated their insight and would like to discuss the subject more. It’s a more personable way to network.
Ask thought-provoking questions and reply to people’s answers.
Once you get the feel of group posting, consider starting your own group. It’ll really show off your position as industry leader.

Engagement in groups is just one of the many tactics employed in successful social media marketing. If you want an engaged social media presence, but lack the time or expertise to make that a reality, reach out to Alpine Small Business Solutions today! We’d love to assist you with social media marketing or any aspect of small business building.

Bring Business to you through YouTube

Are you looking to increase your online visibility, build trust, and convert prospects into customers, then online video and YouTube marketing need to be part of your online marketing activity.

Why is YouTube so important? Today we enjoy faster connection speeds, unlimited hosting, and a video camera in every pocket or purse. That makes creating and sharing videos incredibly easy and affordable.

In addition, videos often appear on the first page of search results, and even when they don’t, people often go directly to YouTube to conduct a search. In fact, YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world behind Google, which owns it.

YouTube also gives us advanced annotation tools that allow us to create clickable calls to action within our videos to encourage engagement and subscriptions. With promoted videos you can even create links that take viewers to your website or other web property.

Make sure you are creating compelling videos. Most of us will never create a “viral” video with millions of views because we don’t own a piano-playing cat or a sneezing baby panda, but thankfully those aren’t required for success. In fact, most of us couldn’t handle a million new customers all at once, anyway. Instead, you should create content that addresses your audience’s needs. Your goal should be to create videos that are helpful, valuable and compelling to your prospects and clients. If you can blog about it, you can create a video about it. Your video content may consist of how-to’s, answers to frequently asked questions, expert interviews, screen video captures, slide shows and much more.

Work your keywords into your video. There are four obvious places to use your keywords in each video:

Title: Just like your blog posts, make sure the title of your video includes your keywords. Twice is nice.
Description: Don’t scrimp here! Too many people ignore the description, or just write a one-sentence description. Feel free to write a blog-post length description, working in your keyword phrase(s) multiple times.
Tags: Make sure you use your keywords and variation of those keywords in the tags section.
Narrative: YouTube is listening! YouTube takes your audio and creates an automatic transcript and uses this as part of their algorithm. So bake those keywords into the narrative as well.

Include a call-to-action. Want people to take an action at the end of your video? Tell them what to do. “For more on virtual assistants visit us at alpinesbsolutions.com.”

You can also include a clickable link in your description. Best practice is to start your description with the URL you want to drive traffic to and make sure you include the http://…otherwise the link won’t work.

Leverage social media to attract more eyeballs. Once your video is live, you can create a surge of traffic by posting links to your social media outposts, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Make sure you write a blog post with your video embedded in the post. And don’t forget about Google+, which, like YouTube, is part of the Google empire. Every view counts towards your total view, whether your viewer is at YouTube or not.

While YouTube is very helpful don’t expect one video to change your business. As mentioned before: forget about your dreams of creating a viral video. Instead, focus on creating a steady, consistent stream of helpful videos that address your ideal customer’s biggest problems.

That will help you increase your online visibility and drive more qualified traffic to your website.

Be unique but be concise with what you have available and who you are. In the end, this will be one of the most helpful tools you have for your business.

And as always, if this stuff makes you dizzy and you just don’t want to take the time to learn all the ins and out of YouTube, Remember that Alpine Small Business Solutions, is your one stop shop for all your marketing, Virtual Assistant, Online Business Manager and business building need. We got your back, so give us a jingle or shoot over an email anytime we’re here to help.

Thank you for visiting our blog. We hope you enjoyed it. As a friendly reminder don’t forget to share this blog on your social networks and please comment, we love hearing from you!

This blog is brought to you by Alpine Small Business Solutions, Your Virtual Assistant and Online Business Manager Solution. Delegate. Grow. Prosper

Facebook Chatbots: What Are They and Why You Need Them

Customer service is a crucial component of your business. Quality customer service can generate new sales (after all, it’s cheaper to maintain current clients than to obtain new ones). Plus, an unhappy customer can take to Yelp and other online services to destroy your reputation among your target audience.

The customer service industry was recently revolutionized with the introduction of Chatbots. More specifically, the Facebook Chatbot.

What the Facebook Chatbot Is

The Facebook Chatbot allows you to essentially outsource your customer service interaction to a personalized-to-your-business technological tool. Your company can interact with numerous customers around the world without paying a cent of a customer service representative’s salary. Save big bucks. Make lots of happy customers. It’s a great set-up.

The Facebook Chatbot allows companies to create responses with video, audio, GIFs, files, and text. This variety allows for a high amount of personalization to your company’s brand. The bot can be built by you or by Facebook’s bot creating partners. The bots are designed to learn as they go. The more they are used, the smarter they become.

The Prevalence of Chatbots

In today’s digital world, more customers are turning online to seek help. We saw this rise with Twitter and Facebook. Customers didn’t want to be put on hold when they called the customer help line.

So, instead they turned to social media, where their requests were public and companies had an increased incentive to reply quickly and effectively. Companies who dropped the ball in customer service replies were ridiculed online. Companies who excelled were praised (and often gained new followers and customers).

Customers adapted to this quick reply system, turning less and less to calling in and instead typing in their requests. This set the stage for Chatbots to take off. Customers already turn to the web for assistance. What’s changed is the company’s ability to reply with intelligent, pre-crafted responses.

The Chatbot world is growing, with over 11,500 bots developed and many more in the works. More and more big-name companies are jumping on board and using Facebook Chatbots to revolutionize their customer service. It might be time for your company to get on board too!

Using the Facebook Chatbot for Your Business

The Facebook Chatbot is pretty versatile with the right programing. Take advantage of the many features they offer.

Let customers make a purchase. Customers can place orders within the bot itself, which is especially great for highly mobile target audiences. Pizza Hut, for example, allows customers to place orders through the bot (and reminds them of current promotions).
Let customers get updated information. Send out updates on your business or your industry. The Wall Street Journal, for example, gives users live stock quotes when they text a set code.
Connect customers to your products. Some industries, like tech industries, lend themselves well to this integration. HP allows people to print through messenger to an HP printer.
Help customers make appointments. If you provide a service, the bot can handle appointment times. Sephora noticed an 11% increase in bookings through the bot compared to their other booking methods.
Provide personalized content. The bot can help customers find relevant articles and information on your site. The Whole Foods bot helps customers find a great recipe by typing in words like “lunch” and “turkey dish”
Let customers keep a record of the information. The beauty of bot conversations is they are recorded. Some customers can benefit from keeping this information handy. No more frustrating calling a company for assistance, writing down the instructions, then losing the instructions a few days later. Now customers can just pull up the app to refresh their memory.
Conduct customer analysis. These bots provide a wealth of information and insight into your customers. Go over frequently asked questions. See what customers are struggling with. Find out what they are curious about. It’s like market analysis for much, much cheaper.

The Facebook bot will take time (and, in turn, money) to create and implement. But for many businesses, it can be a valuable investment. Maybe your customer service department is overflowing with the same types of questions. Maybe you want to offer more convenient ways to order products or make appointments. Maybe your target demographic is often online. These are a few reasons to jump on board the Facebook Bot train. If you want assistance with developing a solid Facebook bot marketing strategy, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! Give us a call or shoot us an email today for more information.

4 Reasons Why Entrepreneurship Makes You Better at Life

Being an entrepreneur is awesome. You embrace your passions every day at work. You create your own schedule, working from home whenever you feel like it. You can avoid answering to a boss or getting caught in the corporate rat race.

That isn’t to say it’s always easy. But it’s always rewarding. What most people don’t realize about entrepreneurship, though, is it can affect your life outside of the office. How we work can change the mindset of how we live. Being an entrepreneur is great for many reasons, including the many ways it makes you better at life.

You Become Better at Thinking Outside the Box

The business world often favors those who think outside the box. Good revolutionaries concoct new ways of approaching the same old problems and offer up new solutions.

A few decades ago, few people would have predicted that one of the top media companies in the US owns very little physical inventory or that one of the top taxi services owns no vehicles. But the founders of Netflix and Uber forever changed their industries with their creative thinking.

Entrepreneurs are continually challenged to think outside the box. The more you work as an entrepreneur, the more you develop the skills to think creatively. As you practice approaching problems from new perspectives at work, you get better at applying that mindset in other areas of your life. You can find new ways to solve conflict, structure your day, remodel your home, etc.

You Get More Mentally Tough

No one said entrepreneurship is easy. The ups are great, but the downs can be soul crushing. Sometimes it feels like weeks since things went right. Overwhelming stress, exhausting burn out, and never ending projects can cause you to question why you are doing this in the first place.

And then something magical happens. You toughen up. You grit your teeth and power through, finding new ways to tackle problems (such as delegating your work to a virtual assistant to free up your time). You realize you can function on less sleep than you ever thought possible (not recommended of course, but it is empowering knowing you can).

The more mentally tough you get at work, the more mentally tough you get in all areas of your life. The skills you need to survive as an entrepreneur help you manage your time more efficiently, be a more patient family member, prioritize better, and many other important skills. Entrepreneurship is tough, and it makes you tough in the process.

You Keep Yourself Young

But most entrepreneurs I see have grey hairs and stress wrinkles galore, you may think.

True. Entrepreneurs who overwork themselves and fail to regularly practice self-care end up prematurely aging. Just like people in other lines of work with those same poor habits prematurely age.

Entrepreneurs who prioritize their health can find that their line of work keeps them young. Their control over their schedule makes it easier to prioritize important health habits, such as working out, spending time outside, and maintaining a good sleep schedule.

Every day entrepreneurs work in their area of passion. Have you ever seen someone’s eyes light up as they talk about their passion? This excitement about how you spend your time keeps you youthful. It energizes you and helps fight off burnout.

Entrepreneurs are also always learning. Scientific studies remind us time and time again how important learning and using our brain is to maintaining our brain health, especially as we age. Learning new skills and methods of doing work helps entrepreneurs keep their brains young.

You Are Encouraged to Dream Big

Entrepreneurship encourages dreaming big at work. Small thinking limits the growth of your business, so you are supposed to entertain grand visions of growth and success. Even if your company never reaches that 15^th franchise, considering it as a possibility can help motivate you to work harder than you thought possible.

The more you dream big at work, the more you find yourself dreaming big at home. Each day at work you find yourself asking “why not” and quickly you ask that question in all areas of your life. Why can’t I run that marathon? Why can’t I build the family life I desire? Why can’t I travel the world? The mindset of an entrepreneur is an optimistic one, helping entrepreneurs dream bigger at home than they ever imagined.

Entrepreneurship can be a powerful force on your life, changing and affecting you in ways you never would have guessed. The longer you live the entrepreneur life, the longer you reap its rewards. If you are looking to discover ways to improve your entrepreneur life, and in turn improve your life all around, check out our many training programs.

6 Ways to Stop Wasting Your Summer Slump!

The summer slump is this bizarre time of the year for entrepreneurs. Out of nowhere, business becomes slow. Maybe it’s the sunshine beckoning people to spend less time in fluorescently lit office cubicles drumming up new business and more time on the water. Maybe it’s the association from childhood that summer equates vacation and not work. Maybe it’s just the nature of your business that proceedings slowdown in the summer.

Whatever the reason, you sit smack dab in the middle of the summer slump. When business is slow, you can sit back and catch your breath right?

Wrong!

Now is the time to attack strategic projects. Gain an edge on your competition and decrease your workload in future months when work picks back up. Think of this time as the calm before the storm. Do what you can to get your ship in shape and make your business better suited to weather the upcoming chaos. After all, a peaceful slump can only last so long. Before you know it, the madness will descend again. And you’ll be glad you tackled the following projects.

Update Your Brand’s Digital Presence

Your online presence is often the first impression for potential new customers. Your website, blog, and social media pages can always use some freshening up. Tighten up your website copy to make the text as engaging as possible. Add new testimonials. Upload more engaging product photos. Make sure all your hyperlinks work and each blog post is SEO optimized. These little tweaks help mold a solid impression in the mind of your target audience.

Tackle Your Unorganized Filing System

Organization is a business owner’s best friend. It’s all too easy to stockpile a mishmash of files and documents scattered all over your computer and desk. Find a system that works for you and, once and for all, implement it. The few hours or days it takes to really organize everything will save you so much time down the road.

As you organize, you can also use this time for simple in-house upkeep. Update all your contact information records, get your finances in order for tax season, and so on.

Cultivate Customer Loyalty

In today’s world of mass emails and impersonalized shipping, a little customer love goes a long way. Surprise your current customers to strengthen your relationship and build loyalty. Send a simple free gift, like a coffee gift card or a box of chocolates. Bonus points if you can tie it to your brand (like a bag of dog treats sent by a veterinarian’s office).

Another way to foster customer loyalty is with a customer survey. People love sharing their opinion and really love feeling like their opinion matters. Send a short (five minutes or less) survey to your clients. Show you value their voice (and gain valuable insight on your target audience along the way).

Test Out New Tools

The advantage of new tools is they can save you time and revolutionize how you do business. The disadvantage of new tools is they often take time to research, test out, and make a decision to implement or not. When your business is busy, you struggle justifying the time it takes to try out different options.

A summer slump is the perfect time to explore tools, like free ones for building your virtual assistant team.

Find Areas to Work Smarter, Not Harder

Efficiency is the name of the game! Take a good hard look at how you manage your employees. Maybe you are not fully taking advantage of your virtual assistant. Maybe your employees could perform significantly better with some new training. Maybe you can shake up how you approach delegation. Pinpoint some areas to evaluate and see if you can implement a shift to work smarter and not harder.

Consider Expansion Options

During a lull is a great time to dream big. Can your company handle some more clients? Can you forge new partnerships? Can you bring on a new staff member, like a virtual assistant, to help you expand? Take some time to reflect on the status quo and where your company is headed. Steer your ship onto a new path of conquering new worlds. Set a new goal and create an action plan to achieve it.

The summer slump is a perfect opportunity for entrepreneur’s bold enough to take advantage of it. At Alpine Small Business Solution, we know the ins and outs of business management. Reach out for a free consultation to see if our strategy and implementation program is right for you!

The 5 Barriers of Delegation and How to Overcome Them

As a leader and entrepreneur, you will find one of the biggest challenges to be delegating tasks. In 2013, Stanford University conducted a survey which exposed the fact that 37% of chief executives struggle and are working to improve on delegation skills. Outlined are five disadvantages that might be keeping you from reaching your delegation goals. To overcome these barriers, we must first identify them.

It Takes Time & Mentoring

We all know that time is money, and we are always looking for ways to save time and be more efficient in what we do. Those voices in your head are telling you that you don’t have the time to adequately explain or teach the skills for the task at hand to your team member. The good news is, delegating task actually saves time. It might take holding their hand and teaching them all the nitty gritty at first, but once they have it down, that is one less task on your plate in which you can focus your efforts on more important business goals.

Loss of Control

Admit it, we can all be a bit of a control freak at times. Many business owners have a long history of making things happen with their own skill and determination. Even though business owners think they can do the task better, your business will not be successful if there’s a leader micromanaging everything. A way to overcome this is by providing planned accountability amongst your team members, which will calm your anxiety. Besides, you may find out that one of your team members discovers a new, more efficient method of completing the task at hand!

Delegating Yourself Out of a Job or Losing Tasks You Enjoy

Another barrier business owners may come across is the fear that you are going to train yourself out of a job. Or maybe there’s a reoccurring task that you enjoy but you offloaded it to a team member. This is a great problem to have! Now that you have less on your plate you can move to a higher position, take on more challenging tasks, or focus on those business development plans you never had the time for. You will also be rewarded by seeing others succeed because of your coaching.

Lack of Confidence/Faith in Your Team

Leaders may be hesitant to delegate tasks because they don’t have confidence or faith in their team members. It’s okay to feel this way, but it’s something you must overcome for successful delegation. Start small, take small risks and set your team up for success. Successes early on will give you the courage to delegate more and more in which you can gradually increase the complexity of tasks assigned. Be sure to thoroughly prep your team because the more prepared they are, the less worried you will be! Additionally, your team may lack the confidence in themselves, or they are worried they won’t do well. By starting small together, you can inspire confidence and trust side by side.

Asking for Help is a Sign of Weakness

Asking for help sucks, and you might feel like it’s a sign of weakness, when really it is a sign of strength and trust. We are only human, and we can’t do everything by ourselves. Often it is fear that fuels this anxiety: Fear of over-stepping. Fear of appearing too needy. Fear of imposing. Fear of revealing our struggle and having people realize we don’t have it all together after all. When we support other people to be more successful, we discover opportunities for collaboration that ultimately enable us to be more successful ourselves. Besides, didn’t you hire a team of talented people? Leverage their capabilities, you will be surprised!

To tackle the fear and uncertainty associated with delegation, you need to lay the groundwork for success. Clarify the work that needs to be delegated. Which tasks can realistically be handled by other team members? Also determine the tasks that must be done by you, and only you. Be sure to communicate with your team the objectives and goals of each task so they know what is expected of them and how it fits in with the larger picture. Be sure to set deadlines and milestones and/or the frequency of checking up on their work. Be open with communication and make sure that your team understands they can turn to you and that it is ok to ask questions and further guidance.

Have some tasks you need to delegate-Let’s talk!